After years of mounting frustration and an 18-month delay, OpenAI has finally given current and former employees the green light to donate their equity to charity. The move could unlock millions in charitable donations from employees who got six-figure equity deals back in 2019, when the company was worth a fraction of its current $157 billion valuation.
OpenAI just broke its years-long silence on employee equity donations, and the numbers are staggering. Current and former employees who've been locked out of charitable giving since 2022 can finally participate, according to an internal memo obtained by The Verge. For employees who got six-figure equity packages in 2019, this could mean donating millions to charity at today's valuations.
But there's a catch that's got employees scrambling. The company is giving participants a significantly shorter deadline than the SEC-mandated minimum of 20 business days for other liquidation decisions. Sources tell The Verge some employees are struggling to participate because of the tight turnaround, especially since OpenAI's own email recommends working with tax advisors on the decision.
The timing isn't accidental. This comes just as OpenAI completed its massive restructuring from nonprofit to for-profit, a process that took over a year of negotiations with attorneys general in California and Delaware. The company's share price reflects the new reality - jumping from $430 per unit in last month's SoftBank tender offer to $483 today, partly because OpenAI no longer owes its nonprofit entity as much in future profits.
"The company is about 18 months late in delivering on its promise," a source familiar with the situation told The Verge. That delay has created real tension internally, especially as OpenAI has used charitable donation options as a recruiting tool in the fierce AI talent wars. Meanwhile, rival Anthropic offers equity donation matching at a 1:1 ratio for up to 25% of grants, according to its careers page.
The frustration runs deeper than missed deadlines. OpenAI employees have grown increasingly concerned about the company's control over their equity as valuations soar. The company previously took restrictive approaches that raised red flags, including threatening to claw back vested equity if employees violated non-disparagement agreements.
Those concerns have played out in Slack threads and all-hands meetings throughout this year, with employees voicing frustration about being unable to donate while watching the company's valuation skyrocket. The last donation rounds happened in 2021 and 2022, creating a multi-year gap that coincided with OpenAI's explosive growth following ChatGPT's launch.
Last year's events made the delay particularly painful. After OpenAI allowed employees to sell $1.5 billion in shares to SoftBank, employees were told to expect a charitable donation opportunity soon after. Instead, it was put on indefinite hold, adding to the mounting frustration.
The move signals OpenAI's attempt to address employee relations as it navigates its transition to a for-profit structure. Founded in 2015 as a nonprofit research lab, the company has been wrestling with questions about how much control its nonprofit entity will retain over future technology development, particularly around artificial general intelligence (AGI).
For the AI industry, this represents more than just employee compensation - it's about talent retention in an incredibly competitive market. As AI valuations continue climbing and employees at leading companies accumulate paper wealth worth millions, how these companies handle equity becomes a critical differentiator in recruiting and retention.
OpenAI's decision to finally allow equity donations represents more than just a policy change - it's a barometer of how AI companies are handling employee relations as valuations soar into the hundreds of billions. With tight deadlines and years of pent-up demand, this rollout will be closely watched by employees across the industry who are sitting on potentially life-changing paper wealth. The real test will be whether OpenAI can maintain regular donation windows going forward, or if this becomes another one-off event in the company's complex relationship with employee equity.
